Tag Archives: topalov

The chess twittersphere either had a Post-Magnus Twitter depression or a Pre-Christmas Twitter blockade, because the number of chess related tweets reduced dramatically after the world championship match in November.

Fortunately, we had the London Chess Classic to follow. @london_chess:“It is actually the first time in 8 years that the London Chess Classic clashes with the world famous Olympia Horse Show!”

I had the privilege to travel to London for two days and I visited the Classic on Tuesday, 15 December. I had a talk with Dutch GM Erwin l’ Ami @erwinlami , who seconded his compratiot Anish Giri at the Chess Classic in London about the blog and chess tweets in general. He said that he often tweets during big events like the world championship and other big events, but that he does not feel the need to comment everything that is happening in the world of chess. Perhaps he had a talk with Anish about this subject, because after the London Chess Classic @anishgiri: tweeted “New Year’s resolution: tweet less, win more! “

For the benefit of this blog I can only say: tweet more and win more.

Anish Giri, photobombed!

@GMjtis: Giri is an absolute mystery to me. He fights hard, plays sharp positions, is so gifted. But he’s like Magneto in a universe of metal draws.

You can not say that Anish did not try to win a game in London: @Kingsheadchess tweeted: “Come on Giri, he’s only 45! Anish Giri playing on in dead draw, hoping that Mickey Adams will die of old age.”

Talking about old age: @thechessdrum: “Vishy responds to Giri’s “When will you retire” with “When are you going to win a game?” Got ’em!”

Vishy Anand: why retire?

@sergeykarjakin:“ If you ask me Giri has just become World Chess Draw Champion.”

The London Chess Classic is a wonderful chess festival, with many side ents and some of the best players of the world competing in final leg of the Grand Chess Tour 2016. But even the best players have bad days:

@jonathan_rowson; “Classic self-destruction by Aronian. The frustration of not being able to impose your will gets to even the very best players.”

What about former world champion Veselin Topalov? Oh dear, he had many bad days at the Classic. @mamdouh_ismael: “Is it time for Topalov to quit chess? What a shame to lose against So like this …

@LouLasher:” I love the way Topalov plays, right up till his games fall apart. It’s heartbreaking.”

Perhaps Toppi did not prepare very well? What is your guess, Peter Heine Nielsen@PHChess: “Italian blues; Topalov reknown for deep opening preperataion. 50K Euro question: Was this one of them?”

Toplaov had a simple answer: @GrandChessTour: Topalov: “My brain is not working”.

Talking about exciting openings: @TERrendle: “Wow, more excitement at the Classic in Naka vs MVL! Maybe instead of rapid tiebreaks at WC players are forced to play Najdorf?!”

Hikaru Nakamura: Najdorf, why not?

@joshfriedel: “I guess Caruana-Naka and Naka-MVL illustrate why everyone is playing the Berlin.”

@GMJtis: “Now wondering if the absence of Magnus allows the others let their hair down, or if this London Chess Classic is simply blessed.”

Andrew Martin agreed, @AMartinChess: “The games of the London Chess Classic 2016 are quite superb.”

Did we really miss Magnus in London? @TarjeiJS: “Around 9000 simultaneous viewers of the LondonChess live stream. Now, how much higher would that be with Carlsen playing?”

Happy Wesley

Superb winner of the Chess Classic and the Grand Chess Tour 2016 was Wesley So and he was praised by the Boss himself, @kasparov63: “Congratulations to Wesley So for winning the GrandChessTour! He showed great consistency &, bad news for opponents, he’s still improving.”

@elo_1985_mor: “A dream year for Wesley. Congratulations to him for his achievements. London Chess :best tournament of the year in terms of chess quality!”

However, chess also showed its ugly head in London at the FIDE Open: @london_chess: “The top clash in the FIDE Open, Bacrot-Gupta, was a draw in 5 moves, meaning Bacrot is guaranteed at least shared first!” @elgransenor1: “That was pathetic on board one of the FIDE open today, even by chess standards.”

On the final day, there was a lot of action in the Chess Classic Super Rapidplay, which was won by Valentian Gunina. @ginger_gm:“Amazing performance by Gunina. Well done! Girls are not as good as men!? Don’t think so!

Tania has a day off as well, probably getting ready for the Bermuda Party. @TaniaSachdev: “Tea and snickers,Watching Troms2014 live on Norwegian tele! Aronian-Magnus Kramnik-Topalov and other interesting match ups. Rest day bliss!”

Big games and matches ahead. @echecs64 has a funny tweet about the French team: “How French will lose matches in Tromso ? Very simple. Deprive them from Japanese restaurants :)”. @garylanechess has a tweet about the English team: “England will surprisingly easily beat Vietnam. They always try their hardest before the notorious Bermuda Party”. Gary spotted another interesting pairing: “Surely the big match is Canada versus the USA. If the Canadians grab a 2-2 draw it would be a moral victory!”

China has a tough match coming up against The Netherlands: @nvmea:“Chinese should have borrowed Hou Yifan from the women team for today against Giri”.

The games

@ChessBase: “Kramnik-Topalov, Aronian-Carlsen, and so many monster games. Where to focus one’s attention?”

Everybody tuned in? @JonathanRowson:“Determined not to tune in to the Chess Olympiad until work is done. Chess helps you concentrate, but it’s the mother of all distractions.”

And how about Twitter, Jonathan? :-)) @Chess Classic: “Not even close!”

Not surprisingly, the first tweet after the start of the round: @chess24.com:“No handshake in Kramnik-Topalov.”

Will these men ever grow up? Sigh. @DanielRensch: “To be honest, getting kind of tired of the topic…” Peter Doggers on the subject of Kramnik & Topalov “no hand shake”. Totally agree.

Roving reporter @TarjeiJS is wandering through the playing hall looking for mates in three or other oddities. Of course he found something: “Libyan player losing on zero tolerance for the 5th time in the event. I don’t think he’s here, only 3 of their players here.”

Some more interesting games and players on the lower boards: @davidmelandri63:“13 yr old Anton Smirnov on board 4 for Austalia is on his way to win his 4th match out of 4”.

@abdallahkhalouf: “GM Viktor Bologan(2654) dropped a piece against a FM (2307) from Lebanon at move 20! Upset of the round?!” (The game ended in a draw, although the computer showed a +1.5 score for black (Faisal Khairalla) in the final position.)

There was a blunder in a top game, between two 2700+ players, and its Ivanchuk, who is playing a very unfortunate Olympiad, in the spotlight:

@Chess24.com: “Blunder of the day: After fxg5 Rxe5 Ivanchuk resigned vs Kasimdzhanov”. @MarkTWIC:“Ukraine lose to Uzbekistan. Ivanchuk completely lost the plot in a drawish position inexplicably losing a pawn, then a piece”.

Back to the games of the day: @kumbham:“Topalov seems to be getting Kramniked move by move….”And what’s going on in the match Norway-Armenia? @PoisondPwnPress: “Movsesian and Hammer draw, Aronian still trying to squeeze blood from the Carlsen-stone, Agdestein barely hanging on.”

We should not forget the women’s section, but unfortunately there are not that many tweets, probably due to the attention the tweeters have for the top matches today. “Why is there so little coverage of women’s games? Almost seems it is a mens only tournament..”, @miaupiau666 complains. There are some interesting games, though e.g. Mammadova-Krush in Azerbaijan-USA: @fallingsnowgirl: “The french defense has not been treating Krush very well this olympiad! Maybe she should go back to the Sicilian…”

@nvmea: “Chinese women making incredible mess of it again, hard to understand some of the moves”.

Results

Back to the top games: here is a picture just before Topalov resigned his game against Kramnik. Was he distracted by the camera?

@jokimdawar: “Cloverfield-like camera work at the Chess Olympiad. Hello Veselin.”

And the other big game ended in a draw: @TarjeiJS:“Aronian-Carlsen 1/2-1/2. Kasparov: “It was a draw when I entered the tournament hall two hours ago.”The draw was not enough for Norway to beat Armenia:@PoisondPwnPress:“After 5.5 hours and 79 moves, Agdestein succumbs to Sargissian. Good effort from Norway, no shame losing to 3rd seed and defending champs.”

Another top match finished. @goranurosevic:“Serbia held Azerbaijan 2-2 and stays on top of open section! Perunovic beat Radjabov”

What about the Dutch team, certainly a black horse in this event: @RobertRis: “2-2 versus China is a good result for the Dutch! 8/10 MP going into rest day, everything still possible!”

Lots of 2-2 results today as you can see, e.g. in Russia-Bulgaria, Germany-Qatar, Vietnam-England and USA-Canada! @chesscampeona:“I honestly thought the United States would defeat Canada in the Chess Olympiad today…the big ouch.” @SusanPolgar: “US lucky to tie Canada. Nakamura was near losing”.

It took a while before all the games in the women’s section were over: @theparasg:“Interesting to note that most remaining games in the Women’s section are on the top boards. Do weaker players play faster?”

The Russian team was lucky today: In the game Khotenashvili-Gunina, the Georgian woman played the incredible 57. Qc7, losing on the spot. @pogonina: “Valya Gunina! What an amazing comeback!!! Russia-Georgia 2.5-1.5″ @nvmea:“Georgian women have been the most unlucky team for several years and today has cemented it…”

Bermuda Party

@ChessVibes: “Tomorrow is the first rest day, and tonight the (in)famous Bermuda Party!” @TarjeiJS: “How many U25 y/o will bring their passport to prove they are over 18? If not, risk not getting in to the Bermuda party!”

What to do in Tromsø when you just lost a game in Round three? Paco Vallejo, who lost a brilliant game against Veselin Topalov on Monday, wanted to let some steam off:

@Chessidharta:“Tough day.Tough chess game and even tougher football match against some Colombian supertalented chess-football players. Even Magnus showed up”.

To make it even worse, Topalov rubbed some salt into the wound: @lladini: “Talked briefly with Topalov: “Yesterday’s game was beautiful, but no so difficult”.

Another suggestion to relax after a (lost) game from the Wilderness Center near Tromsø. @tromsovillmark: “Need a break from the Chess Olympiad ? Come see our newborn puppies, just 25 min from Tromso”.

Gabriela Vargas (Board 1 Paraguay, women) has other problems, although she won in round 2 and 3: @kaissapy: “Where I can buy chess books in Tromso?” Maybe @EinarMagnussen has an idea? “Tromsø is blooming during the Chess Olympiad. Lived there for more than six years and miss my town so bad now.”

It is obviously hard to find chess books in Tromsø, especially when you cannot see anything at all because of the fog: @chess24.com: “Foggy view from the volunteer cafe above the Chess Olympiad venue”.

Looks like a smokers’ corner to me. Well, that does not look very inviting, does it? Better go inside then. Any cool games coming up today, Jan?

@EinarGausel: “France facing off against Azerbaijan.on board 1 in the open section- Let’s raise some hell at the sound of the bell!”

@top40chess:“29 of the world’s top 40 players are in action at the Chess Olympiad today, and 67 of the top 120”.

Of course, we should not forget the women: @stv_07:“Philippine Women are making some noise in Chess Olympiad, hope to sustain their momentum as they face #11 Spain in rd. 4”.

Who do you think is leading in the women competition after threee rounds? Susan has the answer: @SusanPolgar: “The Iranian women’s team has a perfect 12-0 score so far, ahead of China, Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, etc.”

The games

Is it possible to write a round report without @TarjeiJS tweets? No. The roving reporter spotted the quickest game of the Olympiad: “The Chess Olympiad’s quickest game in Zimbabwe-Togo: 1.e4 g5 2.d4 f6 3.Qh5 mate 1-0″.

@MarkTWIC:“Chess journalists have talked of “publishable games” for years. Is the definition of publishable one you can fit in a tweet?”

Tarjei published a twitpic of the disaster:

@MarkTWIC: “I really wonder if it was a protest over board order. Colletta Wakuruwarewa ZIM Women Bd1 1633 Bd2 Rhoda Masiyazi 1920”. @Top40Chess: “It’s also hard to see any motive for collusion, plus you’d think they would make it a bit less obvious if it were”. @czrdm: “True. There was a case when a player lost on purpose this way (had to leave). And only he was expelled. Up to arbiters.” @Manju2006: “Zimbabwe vs Togo. Prearranged game? Disgusting!”

There was an update later: @TarjeiJS: “Names/colors in the PGN of Togo-Zimbabwe were switched, so the player who lost in 3 moves was unrated. Still very suspicious”.

@LennartOotes: “The 3-move mate is well known as the Madonna Gambit, where Klip scored an IM norm and Bottema made it to the concert”.

Let’s have a look at some serious action on the top boards:

@MarkTWIC:

“For some reason the phrase “I hate mices to pieces” from the Pixie and Dixie cartoons is in my mind today. England vs Latvia”.

I did not mention Magnus Carlsen in the round 3 report. Today the Norwegian has a big game against Radek Wojtaszek (Poland). @JonathanRowson: “On move 18, Magnus has control, and if you’re his opponent, that’s always bad news”. His compratiot Jon Ludvig Hammer plays on board 3 vs. Duda: @PoisondPwnPress:“@gmjlh is throwing the kitchen sink at Duda’s kingside.”

A (former?) top player is struggling: @EuropeEchecs:“Vassily Ivanchuk out of control : draw (15) against Ziaur Rahman (2523) ?!” @MichielAbeln: “If you look at all 3 games this Olympiad than Ivanchuk needs desperately a rest day to re-energize, mediocre moves.” @AndreyDeviatkin: “If Chuky wants to draw let him draw.He has played enough fights already”.

@ChessVibes spotted a spectacular move in th etop match Russia-China: “A Nxf7 spotted in Kramnik-Wang Yue! The computer prefers other moves but let’s just ignore that for the moment”. His compratiot on board 2, Alexander Grishuk is in trouble: @PoisondPwnPress“: Grischuk losing the thread against Diren. Russia going down? #whoah“

Nice hashtag, btw.

And Carlsen won: @MarkTWIC: “Used to be Fischer fear. Carlsen has some of the same stuff these days. Wojtaszek about to be crushed like he was nothing”. @JonathanRowson: “Magnus is brutal. He’s making a 2735 look really weak and helpless when he is anything but.”@rhenderson: “omg, Carlsen just rolled over Wojtaszek. He truly is the world champion.”

@ChessVibes: “Carlsen now live on #nrksjakk where it looks like Agdestein is one vowel away from playing a diseased chess legend”.

@cesarlasanta:“I would like that Polugaievsky were just “diseased”. He is however unfortunately deceased.”

It was an important win by Carlsen, his team members scored three draws, to claim a 2,5-1,5 victory over Poland: Jon Ludvig Hammer tweeted @gmjlh: “My biggest shock after the game? I’m not losing with my knight stuck on h7.”

Huge upset in the women’s section: bunaya_m:“Congratulations for Irene Kharisma, Citra, Chelsie and Medina, Indonesian girl’s team about to beat Armenian Women”. And Iran is doing great as well:@AlteredCourse:“Chess was banned by the Iranian regime until 1989. Their Women’s team currently lead the Chess Olympiad. Really pleased for them!” @ChessVibes: “China, Hungary, Indonesia, Iran and Russia are the only teams who won in all four rounds in the women section of the Chess Olympiad”

And what about the men? @ChessVibes: “Azerbaijan, Bulgaria and Serbia are the only teams who won in all four rounds in the open section of the Chess Olympiad.”, and @ChessVibes added the top pairings of R5: “Azerbaijan-Serbia, Russia-Bulgaria, Armenia-Norway, China-Netherlands, Ukraine-Uzbekistan, Israel-Cuba”

@JanGustafsson:“Looks like we are getting to see Topalov-Kramnik and Carlsen-Aronian tomorrow!”, which areexciting games to look forward to for a chess loving cat!@KarolineSjothun from Stavanger posted this lovely twitpic of her cat, watching the games on Norwegian TV:

One last tweet for today: Some people are getting “Olympiad Crazy”. And we are not even half-way!